I have had these Perry Miniatures sitting in my drawer, and having used 3 to complete the previous battalion decided to go ahead and build a 24 figure unit of the 1st Foot Guards as they appeared in 1809. I find the pose quite stiff and formal with no variation other than the choice of separate heads, but for such a disciplined bunch as the Guards they will do very well. The first 8 are painted, 4 more underway and I have another 4 assembled in the drawer. They will need the command group of 2 standard bearers, officer and drummer boy, plus 4 of the flank company figures to complete this all Perry battalion. After that I'm back to Sash & Sabre for more cavalry, and a couple of guns for the RHA figures.
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1st Guards at Corunna, mine will have trousers without gaiters.
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| Cuffs need attention with piping to upper above the buttons. |
Back to Blighty!
This could just be the last battalion I get to paint in Spain as we are planning to return to the Uk around end of July, possibly for 6 months but more likely for a couple of years at least. No regrets at all, Spain is a beautiful country and the people are wonderful, the climate suits us, although August can be blisteringly hot. The bottom line is simply that we are missing our family and friends far more than we thought we would and need to get back to them. I also miss real Ale (badly) and the hobby scene.
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| Perry packaging: bayonets and muskets bent into a 'U' shape. |
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| Every one arrives like this but no problem bending back into shape - the metal is extremely flexible. |
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| Each 40mm figure arrives in it's own little black box with label, and packed with this material that I really hate! |
Royal Horse Artillery crew - progress report.
Graham C sent me the first images of the 3D printed RHA officer, I'm really excited by this project and the amazing technology, and can see much potential for producing unique additions to current 40mm ranges where there are gaps, Portuguese in metal being one area. Soon as I receive a couple of the RHA officers I'll get them painted up here. Images show the resin prints and an example undercoated and inked.
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| Glowing green as he emerges from the 3D printer. |
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| Three of them to begin with. Graham tells me these took 12 hours to print, but same time for just a single figure. He's going to print a couple more as Ian and I will go with resin for our gun crews. I have no idea how this works, but I am totally in awe of the technology! |
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| Rear view, primed and inked. |
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| Front view. |
The Guards look really splendid all painted up, and the 3D printed figure is very effective.
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter, hopefully the Guards will turn out to be a nice unit. The 3D technology continues to amaze me and I don't really think those images do the figure/print justice.
DeleteVery nicely done, and the 3D printed RHA officer looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. I can't wait to get my hands on the RHA officers and to get some paint on them.
DeleteYour wee men just seem to get better and better Lee, and are extraordinarily vibrant.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with the move. Moving to NZ was challenging for the same reasons. It took about four years before we were really settled.
Hi WM and thanks for the comment. I think a satin varnish will bring out the colours once I can get hold of some more. We are so torn at the moment between Spain and the UK, I can understand why it took you several years to fully settle in NZ (my brother has been there for 2 years now), it's a massive life changing step moving abroad. In our case three Grandaughters under 10 is a major factor, a possible no deal Brexit is another!
DeleteNever really got the whole Napoleonic thing until I visited your blog. The units you paint are beautiful and quite inspiring. Sad to hear you are thinking of leaving Spain. The possible cancelation of reciprocal health care has got The Current Mrs Broom (who has a spinal tumor) and I gazing back across la manche as well. Don't miss the beer so much, but the hobby side of life is sadly lacking here so a return to Angleterre wouldn't be all that bad on balance. The 3D printing stuff is awesome. Who knows where it will take us all in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteHello JBM, always a pleasure to hear from you and sorry to read of your wife's medical condition. Health care is a major talking point among expats here in the event of the dreaded no deal Brexit. The much valued EHIC will need to be torn up and thrown in the bin. Our legal status as non EU citizens will also radically change, the '90 days in and 90 days out' rule will also be more rigorously enforced here we are told, but we are trying to avoid the grapevine and the speculation. That aside JBM it's all good on the hobby front, same problem though, nobody to play with :)
DeleteSheldon the cat won't like it, nothing decent to hunt in the Uk compared to here, birds, mice, rats, giant crickets, Geckos and his tour de force, the rabbit has now been added to in the form of a very large bearded dragon a foot long at least, thankfully he was just teasing it (!) as it appeared unharmed. Made my wife jump though outside the garage, and no way could I pick it up so we put the cat indoors, went shopping and came back to find it had gone!
3D printing is the future for sure, although I still really don't understand it.
Lovely looking guards unit and your gunner is great! So will it be selling up again? That's a lot of disruption, good luck with it all!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Hi Iain. Painting is keeping me sane right now! It's a big decision, sell up and go back permanently, or lock the house up for six months, go back and see how things go post Brexit. We have just a few days to make up our minds as we have a German couple - cash buyers - coming back next week to confirm things (they are lucky enough to want it as a holiday home). As you can imagine my head is swimming, but one thing decided is that we don't want to do another autumn/Winter here and we're missing the family way too much. Right, back painting those Guards.
ReplyDeleteFantastic figures... in 10 years time we'll look back at these posts and wonder how we could have ever thought 3D printed figures were so "different"... I am 99% certain that they are the future of the hobby.. printers will come down in price and get quicker putting them in the range of most hobby'ists and gamers and after that I think there will be a significant sea change in the way we build and source our armies.. I do hope the manufacturers are preparing themselves.. The very best of luck with the move, we've had almost 2 weeks of rain and cold here but I wouldn't swap it for anything given the proximity to my grandson and children...
ReplyDeleteHi Steve. Yes. I also believe 3D will prove a game changer in the hobby. The images do not show the quality of the printed figures, I'm waiting to get my hands on a couple. To give you a few ideas on costs involved the Digital Sculpt cost 80 euros, the cost of printing the master around 37p each of resin, and the cost of having a mould made by Griffin moulds around £60 inc VAT. Graham C's 3D printer cost him around £400. You can see the huge potential for the future as those costs come down, but quality wise we are already there. You may have seen this image Steve from the sculptors site but it illustrates the potential of the 3D printer to print masters in different scales http://digitalsculpt.se/wp-content/gallery/news/Figures-scale.jpg
ReplyDeleteAs for the move, here we go again :) It's been a good year, no regrets but time to get back home again. Btw, I'm told you are in for a 'Spanish plume' !
Hi Lee
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that you are returning to the UK. I am a bit late commenting on this post, because we have just returned to Spain for our annual 10 day summer visit to the family in the UK.
We love it here in Spain and cannot imagine leaving the relaxed Spanish routine and the wonderful outdoor lifestyle. The past thirteen years have flown by and we have never had any inclination to return to the UK. But of course that could change with unforseen circumstances. Amongst our friends we find that the main problem is often missing the family in the UK, particularly when there are grandchildren involved. We have managed a good compromise with two visits to the UK each year and they come here for an extended summer holiday.
You have been lucky to find a buyer so quickly. Two of our neighbours have had their property on the market for more than a year. Lots of interest, but closing the deal seems to be difficult. On the other hand we have walking friends who have sold and moved between our last walk in June and first walk in October.
I hope that the move goes smoothly and will continue to follow your adventures here on the blog
best regards
Paul